Foreign Affairs

Comoros' most significant international relationship is that with
France. The three years of estrangement following the unilateral
declaration of independence and the nationalistic Soilih regime were
followed during the conservative Abdallah and Djohar regimes by a period
of growing trade, aid, cultural, and defense links between the former
colony and France, punctuated by frequent visits to Paris by the head of
state and occasional visits by the French president to Moroni. The
leading military power in the region, France has detachments on Mahoré
and Reunion, and its Indian Ocean fleet sails the waters around the
islands. France and Comoros signed a mutual security treaty in 1978;
following the mercenary coup against Abdallah in 1989, French troops
restored order and took responsibility for reorganizing and training the
Comoran army. With Mahoré continuing to gravitate politically and
economically toward France, and Comoros increasingly dependent on the
French for help with its own considerable social, political, and
economic problems, the issue of Mahoré diminished somewhat in urgency.

The close relationship Comoros developed with South Africa in the
1980s was much less significant to both countries in the 1990s. With the
reform of its apartheid government, South Africa no longer needed
Comoros as evidence of its ostensible ability to enjoy good relations
with a black African state; the end of the Cold War had also diminished
Comoros' strategic value to Pretoria. Although South Africa continued to
provide developmental aid, it closed its consulate in Moroni in 1992.
Since the 1989 coup and subsequent expulsion of South Africanfinanced
mercenaries, Comoros likewise turned away from South Africa and toward
France for assistance with its security needs.

The government fostered close relationships with the more
conservative (and oil-rich) Arab states, such as Saudi Arabia and
Kuwait. It frequently received aid from those countries and the regional
financial institutions they influenced, such as the Arab Bank for
Economic Development in Africa and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social
Development. In October 1993, Comoros joined the League of Arab States,
after having been rejected when it applied for membership initially in
1977.

Regional relations generally were good. In 1985 Madagascar,
Mauritius, and Seychelles agreed to admit Comoros as the fourth member
of the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC), an organization established in
1982 to encourage regional cooperation. In 1993 Mauritius and Seychelles
had two of the five embassies in Moroni, and Mauritius and Madagascar
were connected to the republic by regularly scheduled commercial
flights.

Comoros also hosted an embassy of China, which established relations
during the Soilih regime. The Chinese had long been a source of aid and
apparently wished to maintain contact with Comoros to counterbalance
Indian and Soviet (later Russian) influence in the Indian Ocean. Comoran
relations with Japan were also significant because Japan was the second
largest provider of aid, consisting of funding for fisheries, food, and
highway development. The United States established diplomatic relations
in 1977 but in September 1993 closed it embassy in Moroni. The two
countries enjoy friendly relations.

In November 1975, Comoros became the 143d member of the UN. In the
1990s, the republic continued to represent Mahoré in the UN. Comoros
was also a member of the OAU, the EDF, the World Bank, the IMF, the IOC,
and the African Development Bank.

Comoros thus cultivated relations with various nations, both East and
West, seeking to increase trade and obtain financial assistance. In
1994, however, it was increasingly facing the need to control its
expenditures and reorganize its economy so that it would be viewed as a
sounder recipient of investment. Comoros also confronted domestically
the problem of the degree of democracy the government was prepared to
grant to its citizens, a consideration that related to its standing in
the world community.